The Film Kanal, By Andrzej Wajda

Kanal by Andrzej Wajda follows a company of, mostly, young fighters fighting for the Home Front far into the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Kanal first begins with the company setting up in an abandoned building as they wait to fight off German forces, but are later on forced to take to the sewers as a means of escape from the oncoming death, with only the rare glimpse of the surface as they remain within these sewers until the end of the film, with the Lieutenant returning to the sewers after he kills the man who betrayed him and his men to save himself. Kanal, as aforementioned, is set during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The film’s setting, therefore, must be described in order to accurately understand the events that transpire. Moreover, the creation
The events preceding the Uprising start in September 1939 when the Germans attack Poland and begin what would later be known as the Second World War. Poland held up a strong resistance against the Germans as they waited for Britain and France to come to their aid as they had previously signed a treaty in the 1930s, which formally declared that, was Poland to come under attack from Germany, they would mobilize their armies within 72 hours, and a full scale attack against Germany would be waged within 7 days. However, these two powerful nations did not heed to this treaty, and Poland fell, not only to the hands of the Germans, but to the Russians as well, sixteen days later. It is worth mentioning that, had Britain and France intervened, the Second World War may have never occurred or at least delayed. Nevertheless,
Despite the constraints placed on art during the time this film was released, Wajda still manages to portray the feeling of betrayal and anger felt by the Polish people at Soviet’s reluctance to assist the Uprising. Daisy and Jacek come to what seems like a way out of the tunnels, a light that ignites a hope within the couple, but as they come upon the barred exit way, the feelings of hopelessness and despair can be felt through Daisy’s face, which quickly fell as she looked at the bars. The betrayal felt by Daisy as her hopes of finding a way out were shattered is elongated by her longing gaze at the other side of the river, where Russian troops stood as they watched them die at the hands of the Germans. The tight constraints placed upon films in Poland at the time did not leave much space for Poles to portray this betrayal by the Soviets, but with the knowledge of these constraints, Wajda constructed this scene in such a way that it showed the pain suffered by the Poles at the hands of the Soviets, while being subtle enough that it could still be